STTR Phase I: Microwatt-scale GPS Tracking and Timing Platform

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为下一代设备提供更高效的基于GPS的位置感知。在过去的20年里，GPS设备已经从砖头大小的接收器缩小到手机、手表和宠物项圈。该项目引入了一种变革性的GPS跟踪方法，将大大降低平均功耗。这将使GPS跟踪设备只需一块小电池就能持续数周。商业和日常生活的许多方面都将产生实实在在的社会效益：紧凑型货物跟踪标签可以确保货件不会丢失；嵌入式商品和资产标签可以跟踪被盗物品，并向当局通报其位置；徒步旅行者和搜救人员可以依靠一次充电可持续数周的便携式导航设备；个人健身设备可以跟踪数天、数周而不是数小时的健身目标；执法部门可以使用GPS标签安全地远距离跟踪嫌疑人；手机可以提供始终在线的后台GPS定位，使应用程序能够扩展其功能。这一小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)第一阶段项目确立了全球定位系统(GPS)接收器微芯片的可行性，该芯片可在100 UW的平均功率下提供连续的实时定位和计时，比目前最先进的水平提高了10倍。建议的技术利用了射频(RF)和基带硬件设计方面的最先进技术，这对接收机研究和设计的许多方面都有好处。微瓦级晶体振荡器可在射频单元关闭时在射频系统中实现更精确的计时。这可以产生更智能的射频协议，在需要发送或接收时准确唤醒。快速启动前端技术也可以使采用时分复用频率共享方案的设备受益。该平台可以允许在地理区域内的所有设备上同步到微秒精度的时钟。这为无线传感器网络同步和通信协议的研究开辟了新的途径。进一步的研究也可以研究室内使用的非GPS同步源：如果本地节点正在广播a，则所提出的方法将起作用。这些本地节点本身可以通过外部天线与GPS同步，从而实现无线传感器网络的室内和室外同步。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to provide more efficient GPS-based location awareness for next-generation devices. Within the last 20 years, GPS devices have shrunk from brick-sized receivers to cell phones, wrist-watches, and pet collars. This project introduces a transformative approach to GPS tracking that will greatly lower the average power consumption. This will allow for GPS tracking devices that can last weeks on a single small battery. There would be a tangible societal benefit in many aspects of commerce and day-to-day life: compact freight tracking tags can ensure shipments do not get lost; embedded merchandise and asset tags can track stolen items and alert authorities to its location; hikers and search and rescue can rely on portable navigation devices that lasts weeks on a single charge; personal fitness devices can track fitness goals over days and weeks instead of hours; law enforcement can use GPS tags to safely track suspects from a distance; cell-phones can provide always-on background GPS positioning, allowing apps to expand their capabilities. All of these benefits, and more, are realizable with the proposed 100 uW GPS platform.This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project establishes the feasibility of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver microchip that provides continuous real-time positioning and timing at 100 uW average power - a 10x improvement over the current state-of-the-art. The proposed techniques leverages state-of-the-art advances in radio-frequency (RF) and baseband hardware design that can benefit many aspects of receiver research and design. The microwatt-scale crystal oscillator allows more for accurate timekeeping in an RF system when the RF unit is off. This can lead to smarter RF protocols that wake-up exactly when needed to transmit or receive. The fast start-up front end technology can also benefit devices that employ time-multiplexing frequency sharing schemes. The platform could allow for a clocks that are synchronized to microsecond accuracy across all devices in a geographic area. This opens new avenues of research in wireless sensor network synchronization and communication protocols. Further research could investigate a non-GPS source of synchronization as well for indoor use: the proposed approach would work if a local node were instead broadcasting a. These local nodes could themselves synchronize with GPS through an external antenna, leading to complete indoor and outdoor synchronization of a wireless sensor network.